Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani (/ˈruːdiˌdʒuːliˈɑːni/;[1] born May 28, 1944) is an American lawyer, businessperson, former politician, and public speaker from New York. Politically a Democrat and then an Independent in the 1970s, but a Republican since the 1980s, Giuliani was the federal attorney for New York state's southern region in the 1980s who prosecuted pivotal cases against the Italian Mafia and against corrupt corporate financiers. Giuliani reputedly tamed organized crime—most famously leading the case that sent boss John Gotti as the previously "Teflon Don" to prison for life via testimony brokered in a deal with Sammy the Bull—a renown that launched Giuliani, viewed as tough on crime, into politics.[2]

Early life[edit]

Rudolph Giuliani was born in an Italian-American enclave in East Flatbush in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, the only child of working-class parents, Harold Angelo Giuliani (1908–1981) and Helen (née D'Avanzo; 1909–2002), both first-generation Americans, children of Italian immigrants.[15] He was raised a Roman Catholic.[16] Harold Giuliani had trouble holding a job and had been convicted of felony assault and robbery and served time in Sing Sing;[17] after his release he served as an enforcer for his brother-in-law Leo D'Avanzo, who ran an organized crime operation involved in loan sharking and gambling at a restaurant in Brooklyn.[18]

Giuliani started his political life as a Democrat. He has stated that he admires the Kennedy family,[15] and volunteered for Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1968. He also worked as a Democratic party committeeman on Long Island in the mid-1960s,[25][26] and voted for George McGovern for president in 1972.[27]

Legal career[edit]

Giuliani did not serve in the military during the Vietnam War. His conscription was deferred while he was enrolled at Manhattan College and NYU Law. Upon graduation from NYU Law in 1968, he was classified by the Selective Service System as 1-A, available for military service. He applied for a deferment but was rejected. In 1969, Judge Lloyd Francis MacMahon wrote a letter to Giuliani's draft board, asking that he be reclassified as 2-A, civilian occupation deferment, because Giuliani, who was a law clerk for MacMahon, was an essential employee. The deferment was granted. In 1970, Giuliani received a high draft lottery number; he was not called up for service although by then he had been reclassified 1-A.[29][30] In 1970, Giuliani joined the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.[31] In 1973, he was named Chief of the Narcotics Unit and became executive U.S. attorney.[24]

On December 8, 1980, one month after the election of Ronald Reagan brought Republicans back to power in Washington, he switched his party affiliation from Independent to Republican.[26] Giuliani later said the switches were because he found Democratic policies "naïve", and that "by the time I moved to Washington, the Republicans had come to make more sense to me".[15] Others suggested that the switches were made in order to get positions in the Justice Department.[26] Giuliani's mother maintained in 1988 that:

He only became a Republican after he began to get all these jobs from them. He's definitely not a conservative Republican. He thinks he is, but he isn't. He still feels very sorry for the poor.[26]

In 1983 Giuliani was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which was technically a demotion but was sought by Giuliani because of his desire to personally litigate cases. It was in this position that he first gained national prominence by prosecuting numerous high-profile cases, resulting in the convictions of Wall Street figures Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken. He also focused on prosecuting drug dealers, organized crime, and corruption in government.[24] He amassed a record of 4,152 convictions and 25 reversals. As a federal prosecutor, Giuliani was credited with bringing the "perp walk", parading of suspects in front of the previously alerted media, into common use as a prosecutorial tool.[35] After Giuliani "patented the perp walk", the tool was used by increasing numbers of prosecutors nationwide.[36]

Giuliani's critics claim he arranged public arrests of people, then dropped charges for lack of evidence on high-profile cases rather than going to trial. In a few cases, his public arrests of alleged white-collar criminals at their workplaces with charges later dropped or lessened, sparked controversy, and damaged the reputations of the alleged "perps".[37] He claimed that veteran stock trader Richard Wigton, of Kidder, Peabody & Co. was guilty of insider trading; in February 1987 he had officers handcuff Wigton and march him through the company's trading floor, with Wigton in tears. Giuliani had his agents arrest Tim Tabor, a young arbitrageur and former colleague of Wigton, so late that he had to stay overnight in jail before posting bond.[38][39][40] Within three months charges were dropped against both Wigton and Tabor; Giuliani said, "We're not going to go to trial. We're just the tip of the iceberg", but no further charges were forthcoming and the investigation did not end until Giuliani's successor was in place.[39] Giuliani's high-profile raid of the Princeton/Newport firm ended with the defendants having their cases overturned on appeal on the grounds that what they had been convicted of were not crimes.[41]

Mafia Commission trial[edit]

In the Mafia Commission Trial (February 25, 1985 – November 19, 1986), Giuliani indicted eleven organized crime figures, including the heads of New York's so-called "Five Families", under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) on charges including extortion, labor racketeering, and murder for hire. Time magazine called this "Case of Cases" possibly "the most significant assault on the infrastructure of organized crime since the high command of the Chicago Mafia was swept away in 1943", and quoted Giuliani's stated intention: "Our approach is to wipe out the five families."[42] Eight defendants were found guilty on all counts and subsequently sentenced on January 13, 1987 to hundreds of years of prison time.[citation needed]

According to an FBI memo revealed about 20 years later, leaders of the five New York mob families voted in 1987 on whether to issue a contract for the death of U.S. attorney Rudolph Giuliani. Heads of the Lucchese, Bonanno, and Genovese families rejected the idea, though Gambino leader John Gotti encouraged assassination.[43]

Boesky, Milken trials[edit]

Ivan Boesky was a Wall Street arbitrageur who had amassed a fortune of about $200 million by betting on corporate takeovers. He was investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for making investments based on tips received from corporate insiders. These stock acquisitions were sometimes brazen, with massive purchases occurring only a few days before a corporation announced a takeover. Although insider trading of this kind was illegal, laws prohibiting it were rarely enforced until Boesky was prosecuted. Boesky cooperated with the SEC and informed on several others, including junk bond trader Michael Milken. Per agreement with Giuliani, Boesky received a 31⁄2-year prison sentence along with a $100 million fine.[44] In 1989, Giuliani charged Milken under the RICO Act with 98 counts of racketeering and fraud. In a highly publicized case, Milken was indicted by a grand jury on these charges.[citation needed]

Mayoral campaigns[edit]

Giuliani was U.S. Attorney until January 1989, resigning as the Reagan Administration ended. He garnered criticism until he left office for his handling of cases, and was accused of prosecuting cases to further his political ambitions.[22] He joined the law firm White & Case in New York City as a partner. He remained with White & Case until May 1990, when he joined the law firm Anderson Kill Olick & Oshinsky, also in New York City.[45]

1989[edit]

Giuliani first ran for New York City Mayor in 1989, attempting to unseat three-term incumbent Ed Koch. He won the September 1989 Republican Party primary election against business magnate Ronald Lauder, in a campaign marked by claims that Giuliani was not a true Republican and by an acrimonious debate.[46] In the Democratic primary, Koch was upset by Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins.

During two televised debates, Giuliani framed himself as an agent of change, saying, "I'm the reformer"[48] that "If we keep going merrily along, this city's going down", and that electing Dinkins would represent "more of the same, more of the rotten politics that have been dragging us down".[46] Giuliani also accused Dinkins of not having paid his taxes for many years and of several other ethical missteps, in particular a stock transfer to his son.[48] Dinkins said the tax matter had been fully paid off, denied other wrongdoing, and said that "what we need is a mayor, not a prosecutor", and that Giuliani refused to say "the R-word — he doesn't like to admit he's a Republican." [48] Dinkins won the endorsements of three of the four daily New York newspapers, while Giuliani won approval from the New York Post.[49]

In the end, Giuliani lost to Dinkins by a margin of 47,080 votes out of 1,899,845 votes cast, in the closest election in New York City's history.[24]

1993[edit]

Four years after he was beaten by Dinkins, Giuliani again ran for mayor. Once again, Giuliani also ran on the Liberal Party line but not the Conservative Party line, which ran activist George Marlin.[50] The city was suffering from a spike in unemployment associated with the nationwide recession, with local unemployment rates going from 6.7% in 1989 to 11.1% in 1992.[51]

Giuliani promised to focus the police department on shutting down petty crimes and nuisances as a way of restoring the quality of life:

It's the street tax paid to drunks and panhandlers. It's the squeegee men shaking down the motorist waiting at a light. It's the trash storms, the swirling mass of garbage left by peddlers and panhandlers, and open-air drug bazaars on unclean streets.[52]

Dinkins and Giuliani never debated during the campaign, because they were never able to agree on how to approach a debate.[46][50] Dinkins was endorsed by The New York Times and Newsday,[53] while Giuliani was endorsed by the New York Post and, in a key switch from 1989, the Daily News.[54] Giuliani came to visit the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, seeking his blessing and endorsement.[55]

Giuliani won by a margin of 53,367 votes. He became the first Republican elected Mayor of New York City since John Lindsay in 1965.[56]

1997[edit]

Giuliani's opponent in 1997 was Democratic Manhattan Borough PresidentRuth Messinger, who had beaten Al Sharpton in the September 9, 1997 Democratic primary.[57] In the general election, Giuliani once again had the Liberal Party and not the Conservative Party listing. Giuliani ran an aggressive campaign, parlaying his image as a tough leader who had cleaned up the city. Giuliani's popularity was at its highest point to date, with a late October 1997 Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll showing him as having a 68 percent approval rating; 70 percent of New Yorkers were satisfied with life in the city and 64 percent said things were better in the city compared to four years previously.[58]

Throughout the campaign he was well ahead in the polls and had a strong fund-raising advantage over Messinger. On her part, Messinger lost the support of several usually Democratic constituencies, including gay organizations and large labor unions.[59] The local daily newspapers — The New York Times, Daily News, New York Post and Newsday — all endorsed Giuliani over Messinger.[60]

In the end, Giuliani won 59% of the vote to Messinger's 41%, and became the first registered Republican to win a second term as mayor while on the Republican line since Fiorello H. La Guardia in 1941.[57] Voter turnout was the lowest in 12 years, with 38% of registered voters casting ballots.[61] The margin of victory included gains[62] in his share of the African American vote (20% compared to 1993's 5%) and the Hispanic vote (43% from 37%) while maintaining his base of white ethnic, Catholic and Jewish voters from 1993.[62]

Mayoralty[edit]

Law enforcement[edit]

In Giuliani's first term as mayor, the New York City Police Department at the instigation of Commissioner Bill Bratton adopted an aggressive enforcement/deterrent strategy based on James Q. Wilson's "Broken Windows" approach.[63] This involved crackdowns on relatively minor offenses such as graffiti, turnstile jumping, cannabis possession, and aggressive panhandling by "squeegee men", on the theory that this would send a message that order would be maintained. The legal underpinning for removing the "squeegee men" from the streets was developed under Giuliani's predecessor, Mayor David Dinkins.[64] Bratton, with Deputy Commissioner Jack Maple, also created and instituted CompStat, a computer-driven comparative statistical approach to mapping crime geographically and in terms of emerging criminal patterns, as well as charting officer performance by quantifying criminal apprehensions.[65] Critics of the system assert that it creates an environment in which police officials are encouraged to underreport or otherwise manipulate crime data.[66] The CompStat initiative won the 1996 Innovations in Government Award from the Kennedy School of Government.[67]

National, New York City, and other major city crime rates (1990–2002).[68]

During Giuliani's administration, crime rates continued to drop in New York City,[66] which Giuliani's presidential campaign website credited to his leadership.[69] The extent to which Giuliani deserves the credit is disputed.[70] Crime rates in New York City had started to drop in 1991 under previous mayor David Dinkins, three years before Giuliani took office. Under Dinkins's Safe Streets, Safe Cities program, crime in New York City decreased more dramatically and more rapidly, both in terms of actual numbers and percentage, than at any time in modern New York City history.[71] The rates of most crimes, including all categories of violent crime, made consecutive declines during the last 36 months of Dinkins's four-year term, ending a 30-year upward spiral.[72] A small nationwide drop in crime preceded Giuliani's election, and critics say that he may have been the beneficiary of a trend already in progress. Additional contributing factors to the overall decline in New York City crime during the 1990s were the addition of 7,000 officers to the NYPD, lobbied for and hired by the Dinkins administration, and an overall improvement in the national economy.[71] Changing demographics were a key factor contributing to crime rate reductions, which were similar across the country during this time.[73] Because the crime index is based on that of the FBI, which is self-reported by police departments, some have alleged that crimes were shifted into categories that the FBI doesn't collect.[74]

Giuliani's supporters cite studies concluding that the decline in New York City's crime rate in the 1990s and 2000s exceeds all national figures and therefore should be linked with a local dynamic that was not present as such anywhere else in the country: what University of California sociologist Frank Zimring calls "the most focused form of policing in history". In his book The Great American Crime Decline, Zimring claims that "up to half of New York's crime drop in the 1990s, and virtually 100 percent of its continuing crime decline since 2000, has resulted from policing."[75][76]

Bratton was featured on the cover of Time in 1996.[77] Giuliani reportedly forced Bratton out after two years, in what was generally seen as a battle of two large egos in which Giuliani was not tolerant of Bratton's celebrity. Bratton went on to become chief of the Los Angeles Police Department.[78] Giuliani's term also saw allegations of civil rights abuses and other police misconduct under other commissioners after Bratton's departure. There were police shootings of unarmed suspects,[79] and the scandals surrounding the torture of Abner Louima and the killings of Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond. Giuliani supported the New York Police Department, for example by releasing what he called Dorismond's "extensive criminal record" to the public, including a sealed juvenile file.[80]

City services[edit]

The Giuliani administration advocated the privatization of failing public schools and increasing school choice through a voucher-based system.[81] Giuliani supported protection for illegal immigrants. He continued a policy of preventing city employees from contacting the Immigration and Naturalization Service about immigration violations, on the grounds that illegal aliens should be able to take actions such as sending their children to school or reporting crimes to the police without fear of deportation.[82]

During his mayoralty, gay and lesbian New Yorkers received domestic partnership rights. Giuliani induced the city's Democratic-controlled New York City Council, which had avoided the issue for years, to pass legislation providing broad protection for same-sex partners. In 1998, he codified local law by granting all city employees equal benefits for their domestic partners.[83]

Appointees as defendants[edit]

Several of Giuliani's appointees to head City agencies became defendants in criminal proceedings.

In 2000, Giuliani appointed 34-year-old Russell Harding, the son of Liberal Party of New York leader and longtime Giuliani mentor Raymond Harding, to head the New York City Housing Development Corporation, although Harding had neither a college degree nor relevant experience. In 2005, Harding pleaded guilty to defrauding the Housing Development Corporation and to possession of child pornography. He was sentenced to five years in prison.[84] Russell Harding committed suicide in 2012.[85]

Giuliani was a longtime backer of Bernard Kerik, who started out as a NYPD detective driving for Giuliani's campaign. Giuliani appointed him as the Commissioner of the Department of Correction and then as the Police Commissioner. Giuliani was also the godfather to Kerik's two youngest children.[87] After Giuliani left office, Kerik pleaded guilty to state corruption charges dating from his Corrections days.[88] Kerik is currently awaiting trial on related federal charges of conspiracy, tax fraud and obstruction of justice.[89] Giuliani has not been implicated in any of the Kerik scandals.

2000 U.S. Senate campaign[edit]

Due to term limits, Giuliani could not run in 2001 for a third term as Mayor. In November 1998, long-serving Democratic New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan announced his retirement and Giuliani immediately indicated an interest in running in the 2000 election for the now-open seat. Due to his high profile and visibility Giuliani was supported by the state Republican Party, even though he had irritated many by endorsing incumbent Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo over Republican George Pataki in 1994.[90] Giuliani's entrance led Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel and others to recruit then-U.S. First LadyHillary Rodham Clinton to run for Moynihan's seat, hoping she might combat his star power.

An early January 1999 poll showed Giuliani trailing Clinton by 10 points.[91] In April 1999, Giuliani formed an exploratory committee in connection with the Senate run. By January 2000, Giuliani had reversed the polls situation, pulling nine points ahead after taking advantage of several campaign stumbles by Clinton.[91] Nevertheless, the Giuliani campaign was showing some structural weaknesses; so closely identified with New York City, he had somewhat limited appeal to normally Republican voters in Upstate New York.[92] The New York Police Department's fatal shooting of Patrick Dorismond in March 2000 inflamed Giuliani's already strained relations with the city's minority communities,[93] and Clinton seized on it as a major campaign issue.[93] By April 2000, reports showed Clinton gaining upstate and generally outworking Giuliani, who stated that his duties as mayor prevented him from campaigning more.[94] Clinton was now 8 to 10 points ahead of Giuliani in the polls.[93]

Then followed four tumultuous weeks, in which Giuliani's medical life, romantic life, marital life, and political life all collided at once in a most visible fashion. Giuliani discovered that he had prostate cancer and needed treatment; his extramarital relationship with Judith Nathan became public and the subject of a media frenzy; he announced a separation from his wife Donna Hanover; and, after much indecision, on May 19, 2000 he announced his withdrawal from the Senate race.

Preparedness[edit]

Prior to September 11, Giuliani reportedly never referred to the 1993 bombing publicly except for a single metaphorical reference in his inaugural address not referring to terrorism.[95] Giuliani also reportedly never discussed the threat of terrorism with the U.S. Attorney in his district, and had to ask Henry Kissinger for background information on Osama Bin Laden after the September 11th attacks[95] despite the fact that Bin Laden had previously declared a Fatwa against the United States;[96] the Clinton administration had established a section of the CIA devoted exclusively to hunting Bin Laden.[97][98]

Jerome Hauer, Giuliani's emergency management chief between 1996 and 2000, later said that "We never talked about Islamic terrorism. We talked about chemical terrorism, biological terrorism. We did talk about car bombs every now and then. [But] I don't think there was much interest on his part [in Islam terrorism]."[99]

Response[edit]

Giuliani was prominent in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. He made frequent appearances on radio and television on September 11 and afterwards– for example, to indicate that tunnels would be closed as a precautionary measure, and that there was no reason to believe that the dispersion of chemical or biological weaponry into the air was a factor in the attack. In his public statements, Giuliani said:

Tomorrow New York is going to be here. And we're going to rebuild, and we're going to be stronger than we were before... I want the people of New York to be an example to the rest of the country, and the rest of the world, that terrorism can't stop us.[100]

The 9/11 attacks occurred on the scheduled date of the mayoral primary to select the Democratic and Republican candidates to succeed Giuliani. The primary was immediately delayed two weeks to September 25. During this period, Giuliani sought an unprecedented three-month emergency extension of his term from January 1 to April 1 under the New York State Constitution (Article 3 Section 25).[101] He threatened to challenge the law imposing term limits on elected city officials and run for another full four-year term, if the primary candidates did not consent to the extension of his mayoralty.[102] In the end leaders in the State Assembly and Senate indicated that they did not believe the extension was necessary. The election proceeded as scheduled, and the winning candidate, the Giuliani-endorsed Republican convert Michael Bloomberg, took office on January 1, 2002 per normal custom.

Giuliani claimed to have been at the Ground Zero site "as often, if not more, than most workers.... I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them." Some 9/11 workers have objected to those claims.[103][104][105] While his appointment logs were unavailable for the six days immediately following the attacks, Giuliani spent a total of 29 hours over three months at the site. This contrasted with recovery workers at the site who spent this much time at the site in two to three days.[106]

When Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal suggested that the attacks were an indication that the United States "should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause", Giuliani asserted, "There is no moral equivalent for this act. There is no justification for it... And one of the reasons I think this happened is because people were engaged in moral equivalency in not understanding the difference between liberal democracies like the United States, like Israel, and terrorist states and those who condone terrorism. So I think not only are those statements wrong, they're part of the problem." Giuliani subsequently rejected the prince's $10 million donation to disaster relief in the aftermath of the attack.[107]

Communication preparedness[edit]

Giuliani has been widely criticized for his decision to locate the Office of Emergency Management headquarters on the 23rd floor inside the 7 World Trade Center building. Those opposing the decision perceived the office as a target for a terrorist attack in light of the previous terrorist attack against the World Trade Center in 1993.[108][109][110] The office was unable to coordinate efforts between police and firefighters properly while evacuating its headquarters.[111] Large tanks of diesel fuel were placed in 7 World Trade to power the command center. In May 1997, Giuliani put responsibility for selecting the location on Jerome M. Hauer, who had served under Giuliani from 1996 to 2000 before being appointed by him as New York City's first Director of Emergency Management. Hauer has taken exception to that account in interviews and provided Fox News and New York Magazine with a memo demonstrating that he recommended a location in Brooklyn but was overruled by Giuliani. Television journalist Chris Wallace interviewed Giuliani on May 13, 2007, about his 1997 decision to locate the command center at the World Trade Center. Giuliani laughed during Wallace's questions and said that Hauer recommended the World Trade Center site and claimed that Hauer said that the WTC site was the best location. Wallace presented Giuliani a photocopy of Hauer's directive letter. The letter urged Giuliani to locate the command center in Brooklyn, instead of lower Manhattan.[112][113][114][115][116] The February 1996 memo read, "The [Brooklyn] building is secure and not as visible a target as buildings in Lower Manhattan."[117]

In January 2008, an eight-page memo was revealed which detailed the New York City Police Department's opposition in 1998 to location of the city's emergency command center at the Trade Center site. The Giuliani administration overrode these concerns.[118]

The 9/11 Commission Report noted that lack of preparedness could have led to the deaths of first responders at the scene of the attacks. The Commission noted that the radios in use by the fire department were the same radios which had been criticized for their ineffectiveness following the 1993 World Trade Center bombings. Family members of 9/11 victims have said that these radios were a complaint of emergency services responders for years.[119] The radios were not working when Fire Department chiefs ordered the 343 firefighters inside the towers to evacuate, and they remained in the towers as the towers collapsed.[120][121] However, when Giuliani testified before the 9/11 Commission he said that the firefighters ignored the evacuation order out of an effort to save lives.[122][123] Giuliani testified to the Commission, where some family members of responders who had died in the attacks appeared to protest his statements.[124] A 1994 mayoral office study of the radios indicated that they were faulty. Replacement radios were purchased in a $33 million no-bid contract with Motorola, and implemented in early 2001. However, the radios were recalled in March 2001 after a probationary firefighter's calls for help at a house fire could not be picked up by others at the scene, leaving firemen with the old analog radios from 1993.[125][126] A book later published by Commission members Thomas Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission, argued that the Commission had not pursued a tough enough line of questioning with Giuliani.[127]

An October 2001 study by the National Institute of Environmental Safety and Health said that cleanup workers lacked adequate protective gear.[109][128]

Public reaction[edit]

In the wake of the attacks, Giuliani gained international attention and was widely hailed for his leadership during the crisis.[129] When polled just six weeks after the attack Giuliani received a 79 percent approval rating among New York City voters, a dramatic increase over the 36 percent rating he had received a year earlier – average at the end of a two-term mayorship.[130][131]Oprah Winfrey called him "America's Mayor" at a 9/11 memorial service held at Yankee Stadium on September 23, 2001.[132][133] Other voices denied it was the mayor who had pulled the city together. "You didn't bring us together, our pain brought us together and our decency brought us together. We would have come together if Bozo was the mayor", said civil rights activist Al Sharpton, in a statement largely supported by Fernando Ferrer, one of three main candidates for the mayoralty at the end of 2001. "He was a power-hungry person", Sharpton also said.[134]

Time Person of the Year[edit]

On December 24, 2001,[135]Time magazine named Giuliani its Person of the Year for 2001.[100]Time observed that, prior to 9/11, the public image of Giuliani had been that of a rigid, self-righteous, ambitious politician. After 9/11, and perhaps owing also to his bout with prostate cancer, his public image had been reformed to that of a man who could be counted on to unite a city in the midst of its greatest crisis. Historian Vincent J. Cannato concluded in September 2006:

With time, Giuliani's legacy will be based on more than just 9/11. He left a city immeasurably better off– safer, more prosperous, more confident– than the one he had inherited eight years earlier, even with the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center at its heart. Debates about his accomplishments will continue, but the significance of his mayoralty is hard to deny.[136]

Giuliani was praised by some for his close involvement with the rescue and recovery efforts, but others argue that "Giuliani has exaggerated the role he played after the terrorist attacks, casting himself as a hero for political gain."[137] Giuliani has collected $11.4 million from speaking fees in a single year (his demand increasing after the attacks).[138] Before September 11, Giuliani's assets were estimated to be somewhat less than $2 million, but his net worth could now be as high as 30 times that amount.[139] However one must take into account that since then he has been working in the private sector. As is the case with many politicians, he has made most of his money since leaving office.

Giuliani took control away from agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, leaving the "largely unknown" city Department of Design and Construction in charge of recovery and cleanup. Documents indicate that the Giuliani administration never enforced federal requirements requiring the wearing of respirators. Concurrently, the administration threatened companies with dismissal if cleanup work slowed.[145][146] In June 2007, Christie Todd Whitman, former Republican Governor of New Jersey and director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), reportedly stated that the EPA had pushed for workers at the WTC site to wear respirators but that she had been blocked by Giuliani. She stated that she believed that the subsequent lung disease and deaths suffered by WTC responders were a result of these actions.[147] However, former deputy mayor Joe Lhota, then with the Giuliani campaign, replied, "All workers at Ground Zero were instructed repeatedly to wear their respirators."[148]

Giuliani asked the city's Congressional delegation to limit the city's liability for Ground Zero illnesses be limited to a total of $350 million. Two years after Giuliani finished his term, FEMA appropriated $1 billion to a special insurance fund, called the World Trade Center Captive Insurance Company, to protect the city against 9/11 lawsuits.[149]

In February 2007, the International Association of Fire Fighters issued a letter asserting that Giuliani rushed to conclude the recovery effort once gold and silver had been recovered from World Trade Center vaults and thereby prevented the remains of many victims from being recovered: "Mayor Giuliani's actions meant that fire fighters and citizens who perished would either remain buried at Ground Zero forever, with no closure for families, or be removed like garbage and deposited at the Fresh Kills Landfill", it said, adding: "Hundreds remained entombed in Ground Zero when Giuliani gave up on them."[150] Lawyers for the International Association of Fire Fighters seek to interview Giuliani under oath as part of a federal legal action alleging that New York City negligently dumped body parts and other human remains in the Fresh Kills Landfill.[151]

Post-mayoralty[edit]

Politics[edit]

Before 2008 election[edit]

Since leaving office as Mayor, Giuliani has remained politically active by campaigning for Republican candidates for political offices at all levels. He was a speaker at the 2004 Republican National Convention, where he endorsed President George W. Bush for re-election by recalling that immediately after the World Trade Center towers fell,

Without really thinking, based on just emotion, spontaneous, I grabbed the arm of then-Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, and I said to him, 'Bernie, thank God George Bush is our president'.[152]

Similarly, in June 2006, Giuliani started a website called Solutions America to help elect Republican candidates across the nation.

After campaigning on Bush's behalf in the U.S. presidential election of 2004, he was reportedly the top choice for Secretary of Homeland Security after Tom Ridge's resignation. When suggestions were made that Giuliani's confirmation hearings would be marred by details of his past affairs and scandals, he turned down the offer and instead recommended his friend and former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik. After the formal announcement of Kerik's nomination, information about Kerik's past– most notably, that he had ties to organized crime, had been sued for sexual harassment and had employed an undocumented alien as a domestic servant– became known.

Giuliani's campaign hit a difficult stretch during November and December 2007, in which Bernard Kerik, whom Giuliani had appointed to or recommended for several top positions, was indicted on 16 counts of tax fraud and other federal charges;[157] the media reported that while Mayor of New York, Giuliani had billed to obscure city agencies several tens of thousands of dollars of mayoral security expenses incurred while visiting Judith Nathan, with whom he was having an extramarital affair[158] (later analysis showed the billing to likely be unrelated to hiding Nathan);[159] and several stories were published in the press regarding clients of Giuliani Partners and Bracewell & Giuliani being in opposition to goals of American foreign policy.[160] Giuliani's national poll numbers began steadily slipping and his unusual strategy of focusing more on later, multi-primary big states rather than the smaller, first-voting states was seen at risk.[161][162]

Despite his strategy, Giuliani did compete to a substantial extent[163] in the January 8, 2008 New Hampshire primary, but finished a distant fourth with 9 percent of the vote.[164] Similar poor results continued in other early contests, as Giuliani's staff went without pay in order to focus all efforts on the crucial late January Florida Republican primary.[165] The shift of the electorate's focus from national security to the state of the economy also hurt Giuliani,[162] as did the resurgence of McCain's similarly themed campaign. On January 29, 2008, Giuliani finished a distant third in the Florida result with 15 percent of the vote, trailing McCain and Romney.[166] Facing declining polls and lost leads in the upcoming large Super Tuesday states,[167][168] including that of his home New York,[169] Giuliani withdrew from the race on January 30, endorsing McCain.[170]

Giuliani's campaign ended up $3.6 million in arrears,[171] and in June 2008 Giuliani sought to retire the debt by proposing to appear at Republican fundraisers during the 2008 general election, and have part of the proceeds go towards his campaign.[171] During the 2008 Republican National Convention, Giuliani gave a prime-time speech that praised McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, while criticizing Democratic nominee Barack Obama. He cited Palin's executive experience as a mayor and governor and belittled Obama's lack of same, and his remarks were met with wild applause from the delegates.[172] Giuliani continued to be one of McCain's most active surrogates during the remainder of McCain's eventually unsuccessful campaign.[173]

Giuliani said his political career was not necessarily over, and did not rule out a 2010 New York gubernatorial or 2012 presidential bid.[179] A November 2008 Siena College poll indicated that although Governor David Paterson – promoted to the office via the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal a year before – was popular among New Yorkers, he would have just a slight lead over Giuliani in a hypothetical matchup.[180] By February 2009, after the prolonged Senate appointment process, a Siena College poll indicated that Paterson was losing popularity among New Yorkers, and showed Giuliani with a fifteen-point lead in the hypothetical contest.[181] In January 2009, Giuliani said he would not decide on a gubernatorial run for another six to eight months, adding that he thought it would not be fair to the governor to start campaigning early while the governor tries to focus on his job.[182] Giuliani worked to retire his presidential campaign debt, but by the end of March 2009 it was still $2.4 million in arrears, the largest such remaining amount for any of the 2008 contenders.[183] In April 2009, Giuliani strongly opposed Paterson's announced push for same-sex marriage in New York and said it would likely cause a backlash that could put Republicans in statewide office in 2010.[184] By late August 2009 there were still conflicting reports about whether Giuliani was likely to run.[185]

On November 19, 2009, Giuliani decided he would not run for Governor, but rather would consider a run in the U.S. Senate special election in 2010 against Kirsten Gillibrand.[186] The likelihood that he would end up facing the polling-stronger Andrew Cuomo rather than Paterson factored into the decision against a gubernatorial run.[187] On December 23, 2009, Giuliani announced that he would not seek the Senate seat in question, or any office in 2010, saying "The main reason has to do with my two enterprises: Bracewell & Giuliani and Giuliani Partners. I'm very busy in both."[188] The decisions signaled a possible end to Giuliani's political career.[187][188]

As of early 2010, Giuliani continues to appear frequently as a television political commentator. He and his viewpoints have been criticized by Markos Moulitsas and other liberal bloggers.[189] In late October 2010, Giuliani threw his support to former Maryland governor Bob Ehrlich in the Maryland Governor's race, calling Ehrlich one of the best governors of all time.

On October 11, 2011, Giuliani announced that he was not running for president. According to Kevin Law, the Director of the Long Island Association, Giuliani believed that "As a moderate, he thought it was a pretty significant challenge. He said it's tough to be a moderate and succeed in GOP primaries", Giuliani said "If it's too late for (New Jersey Governor) Chris Christie, it's too late for me".[192]

Iraq Study Group[edit]

On March 15, 2006, Congress formed the Iraq Study Group (ISG). This bipartisan ten-person panel, of which Giuliani was one of the members, was charged with assessing the Iraq War and making recommendations. They would eventually unanimously conclude that contrary to Bush administration assertions, "The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating" and called for "changes in the primary mission" that would allow "the United States to begin to move its forces out of Iraq".[193]

On May 24, 2006, after missing all of the group's meetings,[194] including a briefing from General David Petraeus, former Secretary of StateColin Powell and former Army Chief of StaffEric Shinseki,[195] Giuliani resigned from the panel, citing "previous time commitments".[196] Giuliani's fundraising schedule had kept him from participating in the panel, a schedule which raised $11.4 million in speaking fees over 14 months,[194] and that Giuliani had been forced to resign after being given "an ultimatum to either show up for meetings or leave the group" by group leader James Baker.[197] Giuliani subsequently said that he had started thinking about running for President, and being on the panel might give it a political spin.[198]

Giuliani was described by Newsweek in January 2007 as "one of the most consistent cheerleaders for the president's handling of the war in Iraq"[199] and as of June 2007 remained one of the few candidates for president to unequivocally support both the basis for the invasion and the execution of the war.[200]

Giuliani Partners[edit]

After leaving the mayor's office, Giuliani founded a security consulting business, Giuliani Partners LLC,[201] in 2002, a firm that has been categorized by various media outlets as a lobbying entity capitalizing on Giuliani's name recognition,[202][203] and which has been the subject of allegations surrounding staff hired by Giuliani and due to the firm's chosen client base.[204] Over five years, Giuliani Partners has earned more than $100 million.[205] In June 2007 he stepped down as CEO and Chairman of Giuliani Partners,[160] although this action was not made public until December 4, 2007;[206] he maintained his equity interest in the firm.[160] Giuliani subsequently returned to active participation in the firm following the election. In late 2009, Giuliani announced that they had a security consulting contract with Rio de Janeiro, Brazil regarding the 2016 Summer Olympics.[187] He faced criticism in 2012 for advising people once allied with Slobodan Milošević who had lauded Serbian war criminals.[207]

Bracewell & Giuliani[edit]

In 2005, Giuliani joined the law firm of Bracewell & Patterson LLP (renamed Bracewell & Giuliani LLP) as a name partner and basis for the expanding firm's new New York office.[208] When he joined the Texas-based firm he brought Marc Mukasey, the son of Attorney GeneralMichael Mukasey, into the firm.

Despite a busy schedule, Giuliani was highly active in the day-to-day business of the law firm, which was a high-profile supplier of legal and lobbying services to the oil, gas, and energy industries.[209] Its aggressive defense of pollution-causing coal-fired power plants threatened cause political risk for Giuliani, but association with the firm helped Giuliani achieve fund-raising success in Texas.[209] In 2006, Giuliani acted as the lead counsel and lead spokesmen for Bracewell & Giuliani client Purdue Pharma, the makers of OxyContin, during their negotiations with federal prosecutors over charges that the pharmaceutical company misled the public about OxyContin's addictive properties.[210] The agreement reached resulted in Purdue Pharma and some of its executives paying $634.5 million in fines.[210]

Bracewell & Giuliani represents corporate clients before many U.S. Government departments and agencies. Some clients have worked with corporations and foreign governments.[211][211]

Support for the People's Mujahedin of Iran[edit]

Giuliani spoke in support of the removal of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK, also PMOI, MKO) from the United States State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The group was on the State Department list from 1997 until September 2012. They were placed on the list for killing six Americans in Iran during the 1970s and attempting to attack the Iranian mission to the United Nations in 1992.[212][213] Giuliani, along with other former government officials and politicians Ed Rendell, R. James Woolsey, Porter Goss, Louis Freeh, Michael Mukasey, James L. Jones, Tom Ridge, and Howard Dean, were criticized for their involvement with the group. Some were subpoenaed during an inquiry about who was paying the prominent individuals' speaking fees.[214] Giuliani and others wrote an article for the conservative publication National Review stating their position that the group should not be classified as a terrorist organization. They supported their position by pointing out that the United Kingdom and the European Union had already removed the group from their terrorism lists. They further assert that only the United States and Iran still listed it as a terrorist group.[215] However, Canada did not delist the group until December 2012.[216]

Personal life[edit]

Marriages and relationships[edit]

Giuliani has been married three times. On October 26, 1968, soon after he graduated from law school, he married Regina Peruggi, whom Giuliani had known since childhood. In the mid-70s the marriage was in trouble and in 1975 they agreed to a trial separation.[217] Peruggi did not accompany him to Washington when he accepted the job in the Attorney General's Office.[22] Giuliani met local television personality Donna Hanover sometime in 1982, and they began dating when she was working in Miami. Giuliani filed for legal separation from Peruggi on August 12, 1982.[217] The Giuliani-Peruggi marriage was ended in two ways: a civil divorce was issued by the end of 1982,[218] while a Roman Catholic church annulment of the Giuliani-Peruggi marriage was granted at the end of 1983,[217] according to Giuliani, because he discovered that he and his wife were second cousins,[219] and they did not have the Church dispensation thus needed.[220][221] Giuliani and Peruggi did not have any children.[222]

Giuliani and Hanover then married in a Catholic ceremony at St. Monica's Church in New York on April 15, 1984.[217][223] They had two children, son Andrew Harold (born January 30, 1986 in New York) and daughter Caroline (born 1989). Andrew first became a familiar sight by clowning onstage at Giuliani's first mayoral inauguration, and later with his father at New York Yankees games, of whom Rudy Giuliani is an enthusiastic fan. Andrew became an accomplished junior golfer, although he was later kicked off the golf team at Duke University on the grounds of misbehavior.[224]

Beginning in 1996, Giuliani and Hanover's public relationship became distant, with Hanover appearing at few public events.[225] There were reports that Hanover was aware of her husband's personal conduct as early as 1995. On Father's Day Giuliani had told reporters that he was returning to Gracie Mansion to play ball with Andrew, but instead went to City Hall, to a basement suite with his press secretary. Three hours later, Hanover, angered, appeared at City Hall; a mayoral aide prevented her from entering the suite.[226] In 1997, a Vanity Fair article reported that Giuliani had a romantic relationship with Cristyne Ford Lategano, the mayor's communications director.[227] The mayor and Lategano denied the allegations.

Still married to Hanover, Giuliani met Judith Nathan, a twice-divorced sales manager for a pharmaceutical company, in May 1999 at Club Macanudo, an Upper East Sidecigar bar;[228] he took the initiative in forming an ongoing relationship[228] that was kept secret for almost a year.[229] Beginning in summer 1999, costs for his New York Police Department security detail during weekend visits to her in Southampton, New York were charged to obscure city agencies.[158][230] In early 2000, Nathan began getting city-provided chauffeur services from the police department.[230]

By March 2000, Giuliani had stopped wearing his wedding ring,[231] and his and Nathan's appearances together at functions and events became publicly visible[231][232] but not mentioned in the press.[233] In early May 2000, the Daily News and then the New York Post broke news of Giuliani's relationship with Nathan.[233] Giuliani first publicly acknowledged her on May 3, 2000, stating that Nathan was his "very good friend".[231]

On May 10, 2000, Giuliani called a press conference to announce that he intended to separate from Hanover.[234][235] Hanover, however, had not been told about his plans before his press conference,[236] an omission for which Giuliani was widely criticized.[237] Giuliani now went on to praise Nathan as a "very, very fine woman", and said about his marriage with Hanover, that "over the course of some period of time in many ways, we've grown to live independent and separate lives". Hours later Hanover said, "I had hoped that we could keep this marriage together. For several years, it was difficult to participate in Rudy's public life because of his relationship with one staff member", a reference to Lategano. Giuliani, Hanover and Nathan appeared on the cover of People in the aftermath.[238]

Giuliani moved out of Gracie Mansion[when?] and into a gay couple's apartment.[239][240] Giuliani filed for divorce from Hanover in October 2000,[241] and a public battle broke out between their representatives.[242] Nathan was barred by court order from entering Gracie Mansion (where Hanover still lived) or meeting his children before the divorce was final.[243]

In May 2001, Giuliani's attorney revealed (with the mayor's approval) that Giuliani was impotent due to his prostate cancer treatments and had not had sex with Nathan for the preceding year. "You don't get through treatment for cancer and radiation all by yourself", Giuliani said. "You need people to help you and care for you and support you. And I'm very fortunate I had a lot of people who did that, but nobody did more to help me than Judith Nathan."[244] Giuliani argued in a court case that he aimed to introduce Nathan to his children on Father's Day, 2001, and that Hanover had prevented this visit.[245] Giuliani and Hanover finally settled their acrimonious divorce case in July 2002, after his mayoralty had ended, with Giuliani paying Hanover a $6.8 million settlement and granting her custody of their children.[246] Giuliani subsequently married Nathan on May 24, 2003, and thus gained a stepdaughter, Whitney. It was also Nathan's third marriage after two prior divorces.[238]

By March 2007, The New York Times and the Daily News reported that Giuliani had become estranged from both his son Andrew and his daughter Caroline, missing major events in their lives, such as graduations, and sometimes going long stretches without talking to them, and that neither of them was taking part in his presidential campaign.[247][248] Caroline uses her mother's surname, Hanover, rather than Giuliani, and according to reports, she did not inform Giuliani when she was accepted to Harvard.[238] She also linked her personal Facebook page for a while to a page related to the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama.[249]

On August 4, 2010, his daughter Caroline was arrested and charged with petty larceny after allegedly shoplifting about $100 in cosmetics from a Sephora store near her mother Donna Hanover's Upper East Side home.[250]

Religion and beliefs[edit]

Giuliani has declined to comment publicly on his religious practice and beliefs, although he identifies religion as an important part of his life. When asked if he is a practicing Catholic, Giuliani answered, "My religious affiliation, my religious practices and the degree to which I am a good or not-so-good Catholic, I prefer to leave to the priests."[254]

^"Uniform Crime Reports". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved October 24, 2004. These data are from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, most of the recent ones are online. Under the header, "Crime in the United States", click on a year, then use Table 6. Data from pre-1995 is from the same FBI publication, Crime in the United States, in hardcover book.

^Giuliani biographer Wayne Barrett reports that Peruggi's brother believes that Giuliani knew at the time of the marriage that they were second cousins. Alan Placa, Giuliani's best man, later became a priest and helped get the annulment through proper channels. Recollections differ on whether Placa told Giuliani's mother at the time of the marriage that the couple's familial relationship would not be a problem. See Barrett, Rudy!: An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, pp. 143–44.